Shoulder SLAP Lesion and Labral Tears

We have had great success in treating SLAP tears and labral tears with either prolotherapy or autologous, culture expanded mesenchymal stem cell transplants. The focus of this article will be prolotherapy.

This is a case of SK, a 52 year old male who had a partial SLAP lesion tear and was told that surgery was the only option. When I first examined this patient he had severe pain with any kind of bicep use and couldn't lift anything with that arm or swim (his primary form of exercise). The patient underwent 3 injections of x-ray guided prolotherapy injections into the biceps anchor at the superior labrum. He is now able to lift 25 pound dumb-bells with that arm and has only minor intermittent pain. To understand why this would work, one needs to understand some anatomy. The biceps tendon anchors at the top of the socket of the ball and socket shoulder joint. When it gets torn partially away from that bony anchor, it's called a partial SLAP lesion. In this case the x-ray allowed us to place medication at this exact site (which wouldn't be possible without x-ray or "blind" in the office) to kick off a brief inflammatory healing cycle. This gave his body more tries at healing the site. I've attached the x-ray picture to show this unique approach, the needle shown as the dark line and the dark medication/contrast mix covering that SLAP lesion.

The moral of the story is that this gentleman didn't need surgery (with his arm in an immobilizer brace for weeks), all he needed was some injections in the exact spot to help heal the area. During this time he remained completely active, which beats sporting a blue pillow and a shoulder brace.